


A Touch of Makeup

by MellowCherryBlossom



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Kissing, Light Angst, Makeup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 23:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20217886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MellowCherryBlossom/pseuds/MellowCherryBlossom
Summary: Rayla wants to experiment with makeup but isn't very good at it. Callum catches her and offers to help, not realizing how close that puts him to her face.





	A Touch of Makeup

**Author's Note:**

> The fanfic I wrote with collaborations with @rymyanna on Tumblr. Go check them out for some more of their amazing artwork and the piece they did on this fic.

Callum longed for the days when a mascara wand wasn’t a lethal weapon. Those days are long gone when one found its way into Rayla’s hands, who held the wand near his eye.

“I’m sorry I did not knock,” He said to her, trying not to blink in fear that the movement of his eyelid would drive the head of the wand into his eye, “but will you please move that away from my very fragile eye.”

Rayla sighed and rolled her eyes before finally dropping her arm to her side. “Do you need anything?” 

“No, I was just wondering if you were hungry?” Callum asked.

“I’m not.”

“Ok,” Callum said as he leaned around her, catching a glimpse of brushes, makeup pallets, and tubes of cream scattered about on her stand with no thought of their arrangement.

“Do you need anything?” She snapped, “I’m busy.”

Callum blinked before looking back at her. “Um, no. Were you trying to put makeup on?”

Rayla crossed her arms, “So what if I am. Do you have a problem with that?” 

“I don’t,” Callum said as he gestured to the numerous stained towels that littered the floor. “But if those are to go by anything, you seem to be having a problem with the makeup.”

Rayla instinctively licked her lips and shuffled from one foot to the other as she took a step away from Callum, and he’s not sure why he feels disappointed over relieved. “Well, yeah, makeup isn’t easy to put on.”

“Trust me, I know,” Callum said before he could stop himself. 

Rayla raised an eyebrow at him. “You know makeup?”

“Well, yeah,” He said sheepishly, “do you have a problem with that?”

“Oh no,” Rayla said, raising her arms in mock defense, “I’m just surprised. That’s all.”

“That I know makeup?” Callum asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “And why is that?”

“Well,” Rayla started, as she fidgeted with her hair, winding the white locks around her finger, “you’re a guy. I didn’t expect you to know a thing about it.”

“I’m also royalty.”

“What does that have to do with makeup?”

“A lot actually,” Callum stated, “people don’t seem to know this but royalty wears a lot of makeup. During my family portrait, we had to wear makeup. During special events we wore makeup. Sometimes we want to wear makeup simply to have it on and look good, but I usually left it for special events because I hated having the servants touch my face.”

“So you can do your makeup?” Rayla asked, more of a statement than a question.

“I can,” he said, “and as a matter of fact, I can do yours too if you want my help.”

“Oh I’m fine with that,” Rayla shrugged while smirking at him, “just remember that you’re within _my_ stabbing distance.”

Callum ignored her last statement and moved closer to the table cluttered with various makeup supplied, looking over them with a slight frown.

“No offense but you don’t have anything good here.” He said while looking over it all.

“Really? What’s so bad about it?” Rayla asked him while tentatively taking a seat.

“First, your foundation is completely wrong for your skin,” he said. “Too dark.” He took a moment to rummage through the mess of makeup she had before he revealed one that was closer to her skin tone. “What kind of look do you want?”

Rayla shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I guess I just want to look pretty.”

“I can do that,” He said, picking up a tube of primer and popping the cap off of it. “Here, I’m going to rub this all over your face.”

“What is it?” Rayla asked, leaning away from Callum as he squirted a few drops of primer onto his hand.

“Primer,” He said, “helps the foundation adhere to your face so that it lasts longer.”

“Fine,” Rayla said, reluctantly leaning towards Callum.

As Callum rubbed the primer onto her face, he took a moment to mentally lay out all the basic supplies he would want to use on her. “Mind if I ask you a question?”

“What’s that?”

“How come you don’t know how to do this? You’re the girl.” 

“When I was growing up I didn’t exactly have a motherly figure to teach me, Callum.”

He paused, taking a moment to process what Rayla had shared with him. “What?”

“I had two dads, Callum,” She huffed as she crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him, “got a problem with that?”

“No not at all,” Holding his hands up in a defensive position from the assassin. “I just needed a second longer to put that together.”

“Mhmm,” Hummed Rayla, “anyways that’s why I never learned how to do my makeup. Anyways, what about you? Who taught you how to put makeup on?”

“My mom, Sarai,” Callum finally said after a moment. There’s a lump in his throat at the thought of his mother. She was the one who taught him almost everything he knew. She supported him through thick and thin and taught him how to relax. 

Rayla peered up at Callum, seeing his lost in thought she cleared her throat, startling him from his daydreaming. “What’s next?"

“Foundation,” Callum said, picking up the bottle and popped the cap off of it. He dribbled a small dot of the foundations on the back of his hand to compare the shades of their skin. The foundation would be wrong for his own skin, but with her much paler skin it was perfect. 

He wiped away the drop on the back of his hand and applied some to his palm. He used his index finger to apply the foundation to Rayla’s face, who wrinkled her nose and flinched.

“It’s so cold,” She complained, “and sticky.”

“That’s foundation for you,” He laughed.

“Just give it to me. It was easier to apply it to my face when I was doing it myself.” and before Callum could protest, she had already snatched the bottle from his hand and began rubbing the cream onto her face.

He watched her, taking in the smooth, blemish-free expansion of her skin; her fingers, slender yet incredibly dexterous; the slope of her neck, smooth and pale like the moon. Her skin reminded him of whipped milk and he couldn't help but wonder if he reached out, would he only graze air? As if she were nothing but a ghost.

His daydreaming is broken by the sound of her tossing the foundation back onto the table with a pout plastered on her face.

“Rayla, you’re acting like a child.”

“I can’t help it,” She whined, “it’s so gross!”

“It’s not that bad,” Callum said, “didn’t you say that you were doing it to yourself before I caught you?”

“Yes, and it was gross then and it’s gross now.” She said and Callum couldn’t believe that this was the same woman that nearly killed him in search of his brother. 

“Ok,” He started, “ let's just move on to the next thing: contour.”

“What does that do?” Rayla asked him, eyeing the makeup pallet he picked.

“Makes you look sculpted,” Callum said while he held up the palette, “this here is just a few shades darker than your natural skin which is what gives that sculpted look.”

Rayla shrugged again, “go for it.”

Callum took the contour and a thin brush, as he dipped it into the palette he bent forward and stared at Rayla’s face with furred eyebrows and narrowed eyes. 

“Trying to figure out how to kill me with makeup?” Rayla asked, “Because, trust me, I will beat you to it, with knives instead of brushes.”

“Makeup takes time,” Callum told her, “so be still.”

He concentrated as he traced the lines of Rayla’s jaw like he was making lines of indentations, chiseling a statue from marble. It's an image that suits her, working at her until she looked like a work of art. 

“Hey, Callum,”

“Hmm?” He hummed, focusing more on applying the light layer on makeup on her face, keeping the thin brush in moving in a sweeping motion to try and round out her cheeks.

“You said royalty wears makeup, right?”

“Right.”

“Were there any unspoken rules you guys had when it came to makeup?” Rayla asked him.

“Uhh, hmm,” Callum hummed, racking his brain for an answer. “Kind of,” He finally said, “it wasn't taken personal, usually, but it’s considered rude to ignore someone that took the time to try to look attractive, especially if they didn’t have to. For example, when the rulers of the human kingdoms all meet. It was a sort of a slap in the face, telling them that they had failed.”

“Oh,” Rayla said simply, understanding what he had said and taking a look at him while he continued to study her face. He looked the same as she had always seen him: a royal purple undershirt tucked back with a black belt with a silver buckle. Dark grey pants with his blue jacket and a red scarf wrapped around his neck. 

His smooth fair skin and his green eyes were enchanting to look into. His hair reminded her of dark oak wood like someone had stripped a tree of its bark and spun it into his hair, and the leaves of a bush into his eyes. It was like looking into an enchanted forest, mysterious yet tempting. A place Rayla could get lost in for days and never want to leave. 

“Done,” He said while slapping the brush down, snapping Rayla out of her thoughts. “What do you think so far?”

Rayla turned to look into the mirror and took a second to examine herself. She frowned at her reflection. “Callum, I thought you said you were good at makeup? I look like a clown.”

“So far,” Callum repeated, “ I haven’t blended it,” He said, eyes rummaging the mess of supplies for a fluffy brush, narrowing his eyes and pressing his lips together when nothing comes up. “And you don’t have the right brush.”

“Which means,” Rayla asked with furrowed brows.

“Which means I’ll have to use my hands.”

“Fine,” Rayla playfully sighed, “come here and get your hands on me.”

Callum looked away, ears burning hot before leaning forward and placing two fingers under her ears, moving them in a circular motion and blending the contour with the rest of her foundation and he can’t help but notice how soft Rayla’s skin feels under his fingertips. It’s like he was confronted with an adorable stuffed animal, he can’t help but touch it, squeeze it, and hug it to his chest and protect it from the world.

“Mom uses to let me ‘help’ her with her makeup,” Callum said, using his free hand to for quotation marks.

“Were you a help or a hindrance?” Rayla chuckled.

“That was when I was younger, a lot younger.” Callum protested, “I got a lot better with age. She even bought me my makeup kit and we would have days were Ezran, dad, mom, and I would put it on just for the fun of it.”

“Was it everyone putting makeup on each other or you and your mom putting makeup on everyone?” Rayla asked.

“It was mostly my mom and me,” Callum said, “It was good practice, but sometimes dad felt weird putting it on for no reason. Always said he wanted to look his best during special events and nothing more.”

“Oh,” Rayla simply said as Callum placed the contour down. “You have soft hands.”

“Thanks,” Callum said with a small blush, “Do you, uh, do you want some mascara?”

“Go wild. You’ve proven to me you’re the conventional makeup expert.”

“Conventional makeup?” he asked as he picked up the mascara wand that was a deadly weapon only a few moments ago.

“Yeah. You know, makeup that’s supposed to make you look pretty.”

“I didn’t realize makeup was used for anything other than making you look pretty.”

“So you’ve never heard of theater makeup?” Rayla asked him.

“Theater makeup?” 

“Makeup that enhances or changes certain features of your face to make you look different. It got its name because mainly actors use it to help make themselves look more like their characters.”

“So why do you know it and not this kind of makeup?” Callum asked.

“Disguises, duh.” Rayla laughed, “I’m an assassin, remember? I use it to help change my face.”

Callum raised an eyebrow at her as he fiddled with the mascara bottle in his hand, “you used it for disguises. Huh, are you sure you’re good at it? I’ve seen you in your ‘Human Rayla’ disguise and let me tell you, it needs some work.”

“That’s because that one is a joke disguise,” Rayla said with a nervous laugh, “anyways, are you going to come over here and put that makeup on me or not?”

“Sorry, sorry,” Callum said before bending down again, holding the wand in his hand steady. “Try not to fidget. I might poke your eye out.” He said before carefully and smoothly stroking the wand along her eyelashes, looking into her eyes as he did so.

Her eyes are the prettiest shade of violet he had ever seen. A pure violet color, that reminds him of the silk robes that royalty would drape across themselves, and of a blooming flower. They were Powerful. Beautiful. Just like her.

“Are you alright, Callum?” Rayla asked him, a clear smirk adorning her face.

“Sorry,” He said, “you just have really pretty eyes.”

“Smooth,” Rayla teased, a light dust of pink on her cheeks that was most certainly not from any of the makeup he had applied.

It was nerve-wracking to have to stare into Rayla’s eyes for so long. The back of his neck grew hot in embarrassment. No, he wasn’t embarrassed. It was just the awkwardness of having to be so close to her face, he thought. Though, she did have the prettiest eyes. Eventually, he finished with the mascara, with minimal maiming too.

“Now some highlighter,” Callum says, picking up a stick of highlighter.

“I didn’t realize school supplies were also makeup supplies.” Rayla laughed.

“Different kind of highlighter,” Callum said, “a lot more expensive too.”

“Wow, you are a proper beauty guru, aren't you?”

“And you, Rayla, make an excellent model” Callum fired back, watching her grin as he began tracing her cheekbone with the highlighter, the two falling back into silence as Callum focused on applying the highlighter to her face.

“What happened when you got older?” Rayla asked, breaking their silence.

“Huh?”

“You said your mom got makeup for you when you were older, and you did stuff with your dad and little brother, what happened after that?”

“Oh, yeah,” Callum sighed, “I did do my makeup for a while.”

“But not anymore?” Rayla asked.

“Well, after my mom died I stopped doing it for a long time. I was going to get back into it, see if I was still good at it and then…” Callum paused, pulling the highlighter back.

“And then?”

“And then my dad was killed.” He finished.

“Oh, that’s right,” Rayla said, her shoulders slumped as she looked away from Callum.

The air was tense between the two of them. Callum looked down at the ground as tears burned in his eyes, forcing them back as he clenched his jaw tightly. Despite how hard he tried to hold still, he could still feel the slight quivers of his lip as buried memories resurfaced themselves. 

After a moment Rayla spoke up, “I’m sorry Callum. I tried to stop the others, I did, but-”

Callum raised his hand, cutting Rayla off of her apology.

“It’s fine, Rayla. It was a long time ago.” He said, raising the highlighter again and moving on to her forehead. 

“So,” She says after a moment of silence, trying to release the tension in the air, “you don’t do it anymore?”

“Not really.”

“But you like it?”

“I do, I really do. It’s like painting,” He lied. The truth is he's happy to be doing this for someone he cares about, for someone who trusts him with the transformation of their face. It's an intimate exercise and the last person who ever let him that close was his mother. 

“It’s basically painting,” Rayla agreed, “just more expensive.”

“I think that depends on the kind of paint and the kind of makeup-”

“Oh, so now you’re an expert on both?” Rayla asked.

“More of an expert than you’ll ever be,” Callum said with a grin.

“Really now? Is that so?” 

“It is so,” Callum said, holding up the mascara wand he had just finished using, “because I’m not the one that tried to use this for lipstick.”

“I thought it would work as a substitute!” Rayla protested.

“Done,” Callum said as he placed the highlighter and the mascara wand back on the table, “We can do lipstick now, but not black.”

“Why not black?”

“Because the look I’m giving you didn’t take into consideration black lipstick.”

“Well, what kind of look would I need to wear black lipstick?”

“Hmmm,” Callum hummed, trying to force back a smile, “you would need something more like Claudia’s look.”

“Like her dark hair, dark clothes-” Rayla started.

“Purple nails and violet tipped hair-” Callum continued.

“Dark magic,” Rayla continued before grimacing, “ok, maybe you are right.”

“Have some faith in your beauty guru,” Callum joked, “now, what color lipstick do you want?”

“What color would my beauty guru recommend?” Rayla asked as she fanned over the various clasped tubes that contained the colored wax.

“I would recommend the pink.”

“Why pink?” Rayla asked him.

“Because I went for a natural look and your lips are naturally pink.”

Rayla huffed, “than pink.”

“What shade?” 

Rayla groaned and Callum bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. “I promise we’re almost done.

“Fine,” Rayla sighed “How many shades of pink-”

“A lot, don’t get me started.” 

“Then this one,” Rayla said, picking a pink one.

“Ok, but first,” Callum said as he held up what looked to be a pencil with a similarly pink tip to the color Rayla had chosen.

“Uh, what’s that?” Rayla asked as Callum looked over the sharpened pencil.

“Lip liner,” he said, “helps the actual lipstick adhere to your lips.”

“Is it necessary?” Rayla asked.

“I’m not sure. Before I learned to do my makeup the servants insisted I put it on before lipstick, but on the matter of if it’s important or not I don’t know.”

“Fine,” Rayla sighed, “come put it on me.”

Callum nodded as he bent down, putting him eye level with her lips, which are a dusty pink and heart-shaped. The soft skin on her lips dragged with each stroke of the pencil, carefully outlining her lips. He put the pencil to the side before uncapping the lipstick she had chosen earlier and began smearing it along her lips, leaving streaks of color in its wake.

Eventually, Callum backed away from her and recapped the lipstick. “Done, just rub your lips together to mix them.”

She complied, mixing the lipstick like she had been told to. “Good?”

“Hmm,” He said, taking a step back and moving his eyes up and down to examine her face. He had gone for a more natural look where the most notable feature was the lipstick, but even then they were only a few shades brighter than her normal lip color and one wouldn’t even notice the difference in color if they weren’t familiar with how she normally looked. He was happy with the thin layer of mascara and contour, which blended itself nicely on her face and the highlighter sparkled as she fidgeted. “Perfect. What do you think?”

Rayla turned to silently examine herself in the mirror. “Hey, Callum. Can you come here for a second?”

Callum licked his lips, taking a step forward to see if she had found something that he had not noticed, ready to try and fix whatever she might have found wrong.

What he wasn’t ready for was the feeling of Rayla’s soft hands on his face and neck, pulling him close. Just as Callum imagined, Rayla’s lips were soft and plush and the feeling brought butterflies to his stomach.

“Uh,” Callum said once they parted, “you kissed me.”

"CPR," Rayla said with pink cheeks. "You looked like you needed it."

"Um," Callum said, "I - um. I still feel a little breathless, actually. Maybe - do that again?"

“Smooth Callum,” Rayla said before leaning forward and kissing him again, and Callum is sure that he’s going to actually need CPR soon.

“You really kissed me,” Callum said, trying to hide the wonder in his voice.

“And you ruined my lipstick,” Rayla said as she frowned into the mirror.

“I can help you put it back on,” Callum said, “and then kiss it all off again.”

“Alright, but then it’s your turn. And I’m starting with the lipstick first.”


End file.
